Wilhelm Friedemann Bach (1710 - 1784)

Allemagne
Wilhelm Friedemann Bach (November 22, 1710 ? July 1, 1784) was the eldest, and by common repute the most gifted son, of Johann Sebastian Bach; a famous organist, a famous improvisor, and a complete master of counterpoint.

His career was little more than a series of wasted opportunities. Born in Weimar and educated at Leipzig, he was appointed in 1733 organist of St. Sophia's Church at Dresden, and in 1746 became organist of the Liebfrauenkirche at Halle; his father's influence was enough to secure him the latter position without the usual trial performance.

With his father's death in 1750, the stabilizing influence in Friedemann's life seems to have disappeared, and he lived an unhappy life in Halle, from which he frequently traveled to seek other employment. In 1762, he was offered the post of Kapellmeister to the court of Darmstadt, but for some reason he did not accept the position. Two years later, in 1764, he walked off the job in Halle, ending his employment there and indeed his formal employment anywhere. Thenceforward he led a wandering life until, on the 1st of July 1784, he died in great poverty at Berlin, aged 74.

His compositions, very few of which were printed, include many church cantatas and instrumental works, of which the most notable are the fugues, polonaises and fantasias for clavier, and the duets for two flutes.

Several of his manuscripts are preserved in the Royal Library at Berlin; and a complete list of his works, so far as they are known, may be found in Eitner's Quellen Lexikon.
Johann Sebastian, tout exigeant qu?il fût en matière musicale, reconnaissait en son fils un élève fort doué et prévoyait pour lui l?avenir le plus brillant. Dès son enfance, il acquit une maîtrise complète du contrepoint, montra des dispositions exceptionnelles pour l?orgue et le clavecin ainsi que pour le violon. Cependant son caractère difficile et sa personnalité tourmentée allaient faire de lui, en quelque sorte, un « raté ».

Sa tentative d?exercer le métier de musicien indépendant sans dépendre d?un maître se solda, financièrement, par un échec, dû probablement aussi à son instabilité. Celle-ci provint certainement de ce qu?il ne parvint pas à se différencier suffisamment de son père, contrairement à ses frères, Carl Philipp Emanuel ou Johann Christian, qui anticipèrent, accompagnèrent l?évolution de la musique pendant cette période charnière où l?esthétique baroque laissait place au classicisme.

Wilhelm Friedemann fut, comme Carl Philipp Emanuel, en relation avec Forkel, le premier biographe de son père (livre édité en 1802). Mais contrairement à son frère qui fut un conservateur soigneux des documents dont il avait hérité, Wilhelm Friedemann dispersa les siens, d'où de regrettables pertes. Par ailleurs, on sait qu'il se prétendit auteur de certaines compositions de son père, et qu'il écrivait son nom sur certains de ses manuscrits, induisant ainsi les éditeurs en erreur (le concerto pour orgue BWV 596 lui fut faussement attribué lors de sa première édition au XIXe siècle.

Ses ?uvres sont généralement identifiées selon le numéro qui leur a été attribué par Martin Falck dans son catalogue publié en 1913. Ainsi, Falck 12 (ou F. 12 ou encore FK 12) désigne l'ensemble de Polonaises achevé en 1765. Pour les ?uvres redécouvertes ou qui lui ont été attribuées de façon postérieure, le n° est précédé des lettres nv qui signifient Nachlassverzeichnis (catalogue complémentaire). Ainsi Falck nv 2 désigne une fantaisie en do mineur pour clavecin.
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